get a car that can actually reach 60mph without twin NOS boost canisters
No NOS here, SCCA road racing in ITB class.... OPM Autosports built stock Honda 1500cc 12-valve Si motor, blueprinted and balanced, 0.040 over bore, port matched, custom 4-1 race header and open exhaust, custom CAI. approx 115 hp.
but in seriousness: what do people see in those little honda civics?
What I saw in it was, in that racing class, it is one of the "cars to have if you want to win."
To put it in perspective, along with the diminutive little engine I mentioned above, this car ran a 4.93 custom final drive through the gearbox to a set of 13x6 Panasport race wheels shod in 215-wide Kumho race slicks, held in place by Koni custom race shocks and race coil springs and torsion bars. Weighed in on the scales at 2150 lbs with driver and fuel.
What does that mean on the track? Well, I had a 1990 Corvette Z51 set up for track use, 400+ hp 550 lb ft of torque, Doug Rippie Motorsports World Challenge spec race suspension, 315/35-17 race tires on ZR-1 11" wheels all 4 corners, ZR-1 brakes, all the works....
Best time around Roebling Road Raceway (2.1 mile 9 turn racetrack outside Savannah, GA) in the Corvette? 1:24.7XX
Best time in the 115 hp CRX race car? 1:26.1XX. Not too slow, considering the CRX (because of the 4.93 FD) wouldn't break 123 mph unless you dropped it out of an airplane. The vette was punching through 160 on the same straight before the brake markers into turn 1....
It was a lot of fun when I took the CRX back to school to get my license back after not having driven in a few years... I had a blast passing Viper ACR's, Corvette Z06's and tube frame GT cars in the corners like they were dragging boat anchors. My instructor (who was a friend of mine whom I'd raced against years earlier) said it was hilarious to watch me passing a GTO prepped Viper ACR on the
outside of turn 9 (think 110mph flat right hand turn)! Of course they come flying back past me on the straights, but I can eat them alive in the corners on a lot of tracks.
It's all about weight and grip.... and knowing how to put the car where it needs to be to maintain every bit of momentum you can.
At Rockingham, NC on the NASCAR oval and infield road course, qualified 1st in class, 4th overall, ahead of almost all of the cars in the 2 faster classes. Finished the race 1st in class, 5th overall, with 2nd place in class just over a lap down.
Between turns 3 and 4 at CMP, scooting along right nice.
only reason i ask is because i have a person down my street who owns the same model in your pic, and he considers it the baddest car on the street, drives it full-peddle down the road.
makes me at the horrible sound his exhaust makes. adds a whole new meaning to "annoying rice burner"
one day he was trying to show it off, so i made a friendly joke challenge to him, his supped up honda vs my mothers 2003 camry LS.
it was all for fun, he got me on the start but by the end, i had beat him by allmost 4 secs
ever since then he doesnt try to show it off as much as he used too.
(not insulting your car personally, of course)
No insult here. "Ricers" with the huge body kits, neon lights, giant wings, and "fart can" mufflers are put on this planet to laugh at and make fun of.
I used to always get a kick out of pulling into the gas station on the way to the track with the race car on the trailer, and some kid in a Honda would pull up and start gawking.. invariably they'd ask "how much horsepower do it make?" I'd respond, "oh, about 110, maybe 115...." which always got a puzzled look out of them. They'd then slowly ask "what does it do in the quarter?" I'd say "I don't know, maybe around 20 sec or so..." They'd normally just look confused and drive off after that.